Teen Dynamo

He Is Used To Tackling Obstacles On Challenging Motocross Courses. Now That Spirit Has Earned James "Bubba" Stewart An Honor From Teen People.

March 8, 2003|By Aline Mendelsohn, Sentinel Staff Writer

Bubba pulls a hair dryer out of the box, a useless appliance for someone with chronic helmet hair. He can't help his hair. His helmet is a necessity in the world of motocross, a motorcycling sport that takes racers through challenging terrain.

Even so, the Haines City teen removed the helmet for his Teen People photo shoot.

The magazine named Bubba one of "20 Teens Who Will Change the World" in its April issue, which hit newsstands Friday.

Sports anchors have christened Bubba the Tiger Woods of motocross. Bubba, who is black, competes in a sport dominated by whites.

He was named 2002 Rookie of the Year and has since turned pro. He has a role in a PlayStation MX2002 video game, and he enjoys sponsorships from Kawasaki, Oakley and Gatorade.

In competition, Stewart bounces over mud-slicked hills and soars through the air. Commentators marvel at his skill, complimenting his grace and creativity, calling him one in a million.

Bubba is not quite a household name, but anyone who knows anything about extreme sports has heard of the prodigy from Polk County.

Swinging his bare feet from his air hockey table, Bubba says, "I'm just a 17-year-old kid who knows how to ride a motorcycle."

UNUSUAL NICKNAME

Bubba didn't set out to earn that nickname.

As an 8-year-old racer, Bubba idolized racer Jeff "Chicken" Matiasevich and called himself "Baby Chicken." Somehow, that evolved into Bubba. The moniker never suited him.

A typical Bubba, he says, looks something like this: "An older white gentleman, kind of fat, who lives on a farm, has a toothpick and wears overalls and a straw hat."

With his slender build, shy smile and cocoa skin, this Bubba doesn't match that description. He just happens to live on a farm.

"I don't mess with the animals," he says. "I just ride my motorcycle."

The Stewart family farm sprawls across 75 acres, a bucolic picture of orange groves and cows grazing on green pasture. In the distance, anyway. Closer to the house you will see lots of dirt, $300,000 worth of high quality, red claylike dirt carefully sculpted into an obstacle course.

This is Bubba's training ground.

James Stewart Sr., then an amateur rider, took Bubba on his first ride at 2 days old. Bubba entered his first race at age 4 and had a career complete with corporate sponsorship by age 7.

For years, the Stewarts traveled 40 weekends a year, living out of a motor home and home schooling Bubba and his younger brother, Malcolm, who also competes.

Bubba thrives on the thrill of jumps. If he hesitates before a jump during practice, he won't risk it. In competition, though, he feels compelled to go for it.

"I would look like a dork if I pull off to the side," he says. "If I crash, I crash."

Bravado from a fearless teenager? Not exactly. Bubba knows firsthand the risks of his sport. Ten years ago, his role model Tony Haynes broke his neck during a motocross race. The injury left Haynes paralyzed from the waist down.

Bubba knows that could happen to him. Yet he has no hang-ups as an athlete. His only phobia is a fear of being eaten by a shark or an alligator (he avoids oceans and swamps).

"Every time you wake up out of bed and put that first foot on the ground, you're taking a chance for anything going wrong," Bubba says. "That's how I look at life."

To honor his hero, Bubba competes under Haynes' number, 259.

Before every race, Bubba nods to the spectators, taps his chest with two fingers and points to the sky, an expression of his faith. Then from under his uniform he pulls the gold necklace he never removes, a charm engraved with the words "Keep 259 safe."

DREAMS OF HAWAII

Bubba's recreation room is a boy's dream, with an air hockey table and pool tables, several second-place plaques ("I don't like to talk about those," the perfectionist teen says), and countless trophies, some of which tower over Stewart's 5-foot-7-inch frame.

In the past, Bubba's success has incited jealously among his peers. Although he wasn't bullied outright, other kids resented him because he traveled and missed school so often.

"People used to call me a dork," Bubba says, joking that he could appear on the Jenny Jones Show as one of those geeks-turned-superstars. "Now people who used to hate me act like they're my best friends. They see me on TV and they say, `Hey, remember me?' "

And he thinks to himself, Yeah, didn't you try to hit me one time?

In the short time since he received a drivers license, Bubba has owned several cars, including a Mercedes and a Lexus. He counts Ken Griffey Jr. among his close friends and boasts of beating the baseball player at the video game NFL Madden.

Yet Bubba has never been to a teenage house party and has no patience for school dances, where he always itches to go home and train, to take advantage of his best riding years.

He probably has about 10 years left in his motocross career, though not because he would be too old to ride as a 30-year-old. He looks forward to doing something else with his life. Specifically, nothing.